Tag Archives: Season

This is Wayback Wednesday, your midweek blast from the past! From retrospectives of basketball games and their interesting features, to republished articles and looking at NBA history through the lens of the virtual hardwood, Wednesdays at the NLSC are for going back in time. This week, I’m taking another look back at a fictional comeback for Larry Bird that took place in an NBA Live 95 PC Season game.

Yesterday marked 34 years since Larry Bird announced his retirement from the NBA, just ten days after winning a gold medal with the Dream Team. While Larry Legend may not have been completely ready to retire, his ailing back wasn’t up to the rigours of another NBA season. As it was, he’d missed a combined 57 regular season games in 1991 and 1992, sat out the All-Star Game both years, and played only four of the seven games in the Boston Celtics’ second round loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers in what would be his final NBA Playoffs series.

Therefore, it wasn’t surprising that unlike Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson, Larry Bird never made a comeback after hanging up his Converse sneakers. Whereas the MJs were fit enough to resume their NBA careers, Bird’s health simply didn’t allow it. Of course, even simulation basketball video games can take a break from reality. To that point, as my cousin Clinton and I played further into our Houston Rockets Season in NBA Live 95 PC, we sought to keep things interesting with silly ideas, including having Larry Bird make a comeback for us. Let’s take a look back…way back…

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Welcome to another edition of The Friday Five! Every Friday I cover a topic related to basketball gaming, either as a list of five items, or a Top 5 countdown. The topics for these lists and countdowns include everything from fun facts and recollections to commentary and critique. This week’s Five is a list of five oddities that you’ll find in the SNES version of NBA Live 95.

In light of this week marking 30 years since I rented NBA Live 95 SNES for the first time, I’m doubling up on my nostalgic reflections by spotlighting some of the oddities you’ll find in that version of the game! I’d earmarked both of these topics as possible ways of celebrating the anniversary of one of my most significant basketball gaming milestones, and with the date looming, I was tossing up which one I wanted to run. I realised that it wasn’t absolutely necessary to choose between the two. To reference a couple of popular reaction GIFs: why not both? Both is good!

As is the often the case when it comes to oddities in video games that we grew up with, we definitely noticed some of them at the time, while others went overlooked for many years until we revisited those games, or someone else pointed them out. Our nostalgia is admittedly quite adept at smoothing over rough edges, and when a game is a blast, we can easily tolerate and outright ignore quirky moments. Obviously, in the early days of basketball gaming, we simply didn’t know any different! As such, glitches and weird moments are often part of our nostalgia, too. For me, these oddities in NBA Live 95 for SNES only add to its charm and the affection that I have for it.

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Welcome to another edition of The Friday Five! Every Friday I cover a topic related to basketball gaming, either as a list of five items, or a Top 5 countdown. The topics for these lists and countdowns include everything from fun facts and recollections to commentary and critique. This week’s Five is a list of five reasons that I’ve shelved and abandoned my basketball video game saves over the years.

For a franchise or career mode gamer, there’s nothing better than getting hooked on a title and seeing a season (or several) through to the end. As I’ve said before – and I stand by it – completion is what we make it on the virtual hardwood. When it comes to sim games in particular, I don’t believe that it’s necessary to win a championship – or even just finish an entire season – to have enjoyed a title and feel that you got your money’s worth out of it. In fact, I’ve yet to play through at least one season from start to finish in several of my all-time favourite basketball video games!

That’s not to say that I don’t wish that I did, or that I wouldn’t be open to doing so as a retro basketball gaming experience now. Moreover, it doesn’t mean that I didn’t try to finish seasons in those old favourites. Unfortunately, those attempts were derailed, and so countless saves ended up being shelved and eventually abandoned. Mind you, while some abandoned and lost saves represent wistful What Ifs, others either were successfully completed, or I had very good reasons to quit while I was ahead! I’m sure this is something that many basketball gamers can relate to, so let’s look a look at five reasons I’ve shelved and abandoned saves, along with a few memorable examples.

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Within the past couple of weeks, both NBA 2K26 and NBA The Run have received new official patches. To that end, I’m a little behind in posting this bulletin, though in the case of NBA 2K26 there wasn’t a whole lot to report!

There are no official notes for the latest NBA 2K26 patch, which isn’t surprising as it’s basically just an update for Season 8 in MyCAREER and MyTEAM. Nevertheless, I’ve added the release dates and a note about the Season 8 updates to the NBA 2K26 patches article in our Wiki.

Conversely, the first patch for NBA The Run is a more significant update. It includes several technical fixes, gameplay tweaks, and other enhancements based on gamer feedback. You can find the full patch notes below, as well as here in our Wiki. I’ve also created an article for NBA The Run itself, which you can find here. Our Wiki is intended to be a community project, so as always, any help with expanding and updating the articles is most appreciated!

With NBA 2K27 on the horizon, don’t expect any more major patches for NBA 2K26. There’ll be another update for Season 9, which will take the game through to the release of its successor, but we won’t see any significant technical fixes or changes to gameplay. Indeed, any patches that NBA 2K26 will receive from here on out will most likely just introduce advertising for NBA 2K27.

As for NBA The Run, Play By Play Studios has announced new content updates and the eventual addition of an offline campaign, though it remains to be seen how long that will all take. We’ll of course cover any developments as they happen, as well as the details of any official patches. In the meantime, you can listen to Dee and I review the game in Episode #635 of the NLSC Podcast.

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This is Wayback Wednesday, your midweek blast from the past! From retrospectives of basketball games and their interesting features, to republished articles and looking at NBA history through the lens of the virtual hardwood, Wednesdays at the NLSC are for going back in time. This week, I’m taking a look back at the 1996 Chicago Bulls, and their impact on my early basketball fandom.

30 years ago yesterday, the Chicago Bulls wrapped up the 1996 NBA Championship with an 87-75 victory over the Seattle Supersonics. It’s overwhelming to think that three decades have passed since the end of that iconic 1996 season, which saw the Chicago Bulls and Michael Jordan ascend to the top of the basketball world once more. To put it into perspective, at this point the Bulls’ fourth title is closer to the Boston Celtics’ eleventh title than it is to today. In other words, Michael Jordan is to young basketball fans nowadays what Bill Russell was to me back in 1996.

Allow me to pause for a moment to deal with the existential dread of realising that! With that being said, 2026 marking the 30th anniversary of anything that happened in 1996 has had me feeling warmly nostalgic for that time. After all, 1996 was the year that my casual interest in basketball became fully-fledged fandom – some might even say an obsession – and the Chicago Bulls winning the championship was undoubtedly a huge part of that. And so, this week I’m reflecting on both my basketball fandom, and one of the greatest teams in NBA history. Let’s take a look back…way back…

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This is Wayback Wednesday, your midweek blast from the past! From retrospectives of basketball games and their interesting features, to republished articles and looking at NBA history through the lens of the virtual hardwood, Wednesdays at the NLSC are for going back in time. This week, I’m pondering another historical NBA What If, specifically what if Isiah Thomas was traded to the Knicks in 1994?

Let it be known that I’m not a big fan of Isiah Thomas! I certainly respect his skill and accomplishments, and I’d even go so far as to say that like too many players of his era, he’s now become somewhat underrated. However, I’ve never respected his decision to lead the walk-off after the Chicago Bulls finally topped the Detroit Pistons in the 1991 Eastern Conference Finals, and consider it a stain on his character. Also, many of his comments regarding Michael Jordan in recent years have been incredibly petty, and laughably inaccurate. I’d suggest that some of the harsh truths in The Last Dance hurt!

With that being said, he’s undoubtedly one of the all-time greats. On top of being a two-champion and 12-time All-Star, Isiah Thomas remains the Detroit Pistons’ all-time leader in points, assists, steals, and minutes, having spent his entire NBA career with the club. However, there was briefly a possibility that Zeke might end his career with the New York Knicks – a team that he’d later come to be associated with – and one more NBA Finals run. It’s an interesting What If, and with the Knicks back in the NBA Finals, it feels like a good time to revisit it! Let’s take a look back…way back…

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Welcome to another edition of The Friday Five! Every Friday I cover a topic related to basketball gaming, either as a list of five items, or a Top 5 countdown. The topics for these lists and countdowns include everything from fun facts and recollections to commentary and critique. This week’s Five is a list of five things that only appeared in basketball video games.

One of the goals of sim games such as NBA 2K and NBA Live back in the day has been to represent the league as realistically and with as much detail as possible. It’s something that games have been able to achieve with greater success as technology has improved, from deeper modes to regular roster updates. To that end, throughout the years we’ve generally been able to point out things that are missing from video games. That includes aspects of the real NBA that haven’t ever appeared on the virtual hardwood, for one reason or another.

Sometimes though, it’s been the other way around, with games including things that we don’t end up seeing in real life. I’m not talking about the over the top action of the arcade games, or the fictional content that we occasionally see in sim titles. There was a reason to include these things in games, but various circumstances prevented them from occurring in reality. As such, basketball video games have captured snapshots of What Ifs, and what would’ve been if not for an unusual turn of events. Some of them look like mistakes – and indeed, they may be roughly implemented in certain cases – but there was originally a need for them. Instead, they became interesting oddities.

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We’re at midcourt, and the ball is about to go up…it’s Monday Tip-Off! Join me as I begin the week here at the NLSC with my opinions and commentary on basketball gaming topics, as well as tales of the fun I’ve been having on the virtual hardwood. This week, I’m tipping things off with some thoughts on the importance of injuries in basketball video games.

Just like any other sport or physical activity, injuries are an unfortunate inevitability in basketball. From hard collisions and rough landings, to dirty play and simple wear and tear, there’s a possibility of getting hurt. Injuries have altered the course of series, seasons, and entire careers. You could say that they’re one of the leading causes of What Ifs! To that end, because injuries have a significant impact on the NBA, it only makes sense that they’re part of basketball video games. I’m mostly referring to the simulation games, but there’s a place for them in arcade titles as well.

Sure, in the moment, you may not be exactly thrilled to see injuries occur. You don’t necessarily want to see your virtual players get hurt any more than you’d wish for the injury bug to bite your favourite teams and players in real life. There are undoubtedly times when you’d prefer not to suffer any injuries on the virtual hardwood, so you’ll switch them off in the gameplay settings accordingly. If they’re unavoidable – such as being a story beat in MyCAREER – they can be extremely frustrating. However, I can attest that injuries have actually enhanced a handful of my franchise and career mode games. As such, they’re conspicuous by their absence in titles that don’t feature them.

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Welcome to another edition of The Friday Five! Every Friday I cover a topic related to basketball gaming, either as a list of five items, or a Top 5 countdown. The topics for these lists and countdowns include everything from fun facts and recollections to commentary and critique. This week’s Five is a list of five inaccuracies and other issues that have bothered me while basketball gaming.

Even the best basketball video games have had issues and inaccuracies. Perfection is basically an impossible bar to reach, and coding a sophisticated video game of any genre is hardly as simple as typing plain English into a word processor! Also, some ideas simply just don’t pan out. And so, we accept that our favourite hoops titles will have imperfections. In the best case scenario, it doesn’t stop us from enjoying them. Mind you, because we’re passionate about basketball and basketball gaming alike, any major inaccuracies and technical issues are naturally difficult to ignore.

Of course, these issues and inaccuracies don’t always ruin basketball video games. As I said, even our favourite games have them, and we all have different standards and expectations besides. With that being said, while technical problems, inaccuracies, and other issues may not completely spoil a game, they can still end up bothering us. The good ultimately outweighs the bad, but they’re still the finer points that we can’t help but notice, and would like to see fixed and improved upon for an even better experience. To that end, while the following five issues and inaccuracies didn’t stop me from having fun on the virtual hardwood, they were nevertheless a bit annoying!

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From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #627 of the NLSC Podcast!

We’re back on the air after an unfortunate technical mishap last week, and we’re ready and eager to take a deep dive into the somewhat overlooked PlayStation version of NBA Live 96! After recapping a couple of our sessions with the game and reflecting on the nostalgic 1996 lineups for the four featured teams, we take an in-depth look at the features and on-court experience, break down the detailed results of a simulated season, and draw comparisons to the 16-bit and PC versions along the way. We also join the community in discussing which version (or versions) of NBA Live 96 we owned and played the most back in the day, and nominate which one we’d currently say is our favourite.

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 57:04 — 39.6MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify

To get involved with the mailbag or to provide any feedback on the show, hit us up in the comments, reach out on social media, or post here in the NLSC Forum! For more information on the NLSC Podcast including episode guides, check out this page in our Wiki. You can also find the show on our YouTube channel, along with the rest of our video content. As always, thanks for tuning in, and go get buckets!

Patch 6.0 is out now for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S versions of NBA 2K26. The PC patch will be out on Friday in time for the tip-0ff of Season 6. As always, the update should come through automatically as long as you’re online. If it doesn’t, try restarting your console or Steam client, or checking for updates manually.

We’re at the point of the release cycle where NBA 2K26 is considered to be more or less in its final state – seasonal content updates aside – so Patch 6.0 predictably doesn’t include any major changes or fixes. The new patch is mostly just preparing NBA 2K26 for Season 6 in MyCAREER and MyTEAM, but it does include a handful of player likeness updates.

The full patch notes can be found below, and I’ve also added them to the NBA 2K26 update history in our Wiki. Feel free to share any thoughts in the comments, as well as join in the discussion here in the Forum.

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From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #625 of the NLSC Podcast!

Namo Gamo – now partnered with the newly-revived Acclaim – has announced Super Basketball Classics, a follow-up to the original Basketball Classics that was released back in 2019. Whereas the first game paid tribute to the 8-bit era of hoops, the new game will be a throwback to the 16-bit era of basketball gaming. Among other enhancements, the game also will star the Harlem Globetrotters. This week, we share our thoughts on what we know about Super Basketball Classics so far, and also make some suggestions regarding what we’d like to see in terms of gameplay, modes, and features. Suffice it to say, we’re keen to see what Josh and Dave have cooked up with this sequel to a fantastic release.

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 43:57 — 30.5MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify

To get involved with the mailbag or to provide any feedback on the show, hit us up in the comments, reach out on social media, or post here in the NLSC Forum! For more information on the NLSC Podcast including episode guides, check out this page in our Wiki. You can also find the show on our YouTube channel, along with the rest of our video content. As always, thanks for tuning in, and go get buckets!

Welcome to another edition of The Friday Five! Every Friday I cover a topic related to basketball gaming, either as a list of five items, or a Top 5 countdown. The topics for these lists and countdowns include everything from fun facts and recollections to commentary and critique. This week’s Five is a list of five basketball games that I’d love to add to my retro rotation in 2026.

With such a large collection of basketball video games and a predisposition for retro gaming, I’m not too bothered by my disinterest in more recent releases. Moreover, between a MyCAREER and historical matchups in NBA 2K14, a co-op NBA 2K9 Bulls Association with Dee, and a Bulls Dynasty in NBA Live 16, my retro basketball gaming rotation already has some enjoyable fixtures. There are also a handful of other retro favourites that frequently find their way back into my rotation, including NBA 2K17, NBA 2K6, and NBA Live 10.

Of course, there’s always room for other favourites! Furthermore, as fun as it is to have a retro kick begin unexpectedly and on a whim, there are some games that I’d like to make an effort to bring back into my rotation and enjoy anew. There was a time when I felt that certain games were getting too old to enjoy, but suffice it to say that I’ve changed my mind about that! Indeed, between unfinished business, playing different modes, and adding new content with mods, those old favourites can offer many fresh experiences. It remains to be seen how many of these titles re-enter my retro rotation, but they’re at the top of the list of games I’d love to revisit more often.

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We’re at midcourt, and the ball is about to go up…it’s Monday Tip-Off! Join me as I begin the week here at the NLSC with my opinions and commentary on basketball gaming topics, as well as tales of the fun I’ve been having on the virtual hardwood. This week, I’m tipping things off with some reflections on how I’m just as passionate about getting rebounds on the virtual hardwood as I am racking up assists.

I’ve spoken at length about my love of tallying assists in video games. It all began with MyCAREER in NBA 2K13, where my player – a shooting guard – was thrust into the role of starting point guard when Ty Lawson went down for the year with an injury. One of the dynamic goals challenged me to break Fat Lever’s team record for assists in a single game, and that was that. In future games, my MyPLAYER was a point guard, built to get dimes. This carried over into playing online with NLSC THRILLHO, as I relished setting up the guys to score.

However, assists aren’t the only statistical column that I enjoy filling up in basketball video games. I also really relish getting rebounds! There’s something so satisfying about snaring a board, whether I’m controlling all five players or I’m locked to my career mode avatar. Indeed, on the couple of occasions that I’ve created a big man instead of a playmaking point guard, I’ve switched my focus from dropping dimes to cleaning the glass. Mind you, given how averaging a triple-double in MyCAREER becomes a habit when you have the strategy down pat, my point guards grab a lot of boards as well. Whichever game and however I’m playing, I truly do love rebounds.

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From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #621 of the NLSC Podcast!

At this point, it’s undeniable that tanking has become a huge problem in the NBA, with Commissioner Adam Silver openly pledging to fix the issue. Naturally we have our own thoughts on the matter, so this week we join the community in discussing our opinions of tanking and the impact that it’s had on the NBA, as well as some possible solutions that might at least curb it. We also react to some of the ideas that the league and pundits have proposed. From changing the approach to the lottery to removing pick protections to penalising teams that are clearly losing on purpose long before the regular season’s final weeks, there are several ways that this practice could feasibly be discouraged.

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 44:35 — 31.0MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify

To get involved with the mailbag or to provide any feedback on the show, hit us up in the comments, reach out on social media, or post here in the NLSC Forum! For more information on the NLSC Podcast including episode guides, check out this page in our Wiki. You can also find the show on our YouTube channel, along with the rest of our video content. As always, thanks for tuning in, and go get buckets!